A new deal for Tokyo's Ragpickers

Title

Language

English

Source

Panorama X (10) October 1958

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Fulltext

Ants' town A New Deal For Tokyo’s Ragpickers rN a cold windy day about ten years ago a small group of ragpickers start ed building makeshift huts in an abandoned riverside park in northeast Tokyo. Now the group of junk collectors, spur red by an extraordinary com munity spirit, hopes to move to its own version of a mo del town. The present site, with about 300 inhabitants, is widely known here as Ants’ Town, a name derived from the indus trious habits of the inhabitants. Social workers praise the in creasingly stable social security system developed in private by the hard-working community of professional scavengers. Motamu Ozawa, gray-haired leader of the community, said recently: “We are slowly but steadily walking the way lead ing to our eventual aim of security from the cradle to the grave.’’ The group, which started with nothing, now holds com mon property valued at more than $55,000. By paying small daily contributions, the mem bers get modest wedding, fune ral and medical services free. Living quarters, though far below the public standard, are rent free. Aged members who are unable to make a living October 1958 89 are supported by the group. Ants’ Town’s most recent ac quisition is a graveyard for the community’s members. The ragpickers roam the streets of Tokyo long before dawn. They collect anything they can find—waste paper, broken glass, rags or bits of metal. Almost anything helps toward making up their indivi dual daily income of about 200 yen (56 cents). Later, they make house-tohouse calls or visit small fac tories to buy old newspapers, empty bottles or tin cans. In the afternoon the material is sorted and sold to dealers. An efficient division of labor has been perfected in this small community. When the rag pickers go out to work, one member stays behind to clean all the living quarters. Another prepares the bathhouse for those who come back tired and dirty to tips traditional com fort. 'P he ragpickers’ busy schedule gives them little time for their children, who until the winter had an ideal companion and leader. The late Miss Reiko Kitahara, who was born in to high social position, had for eight years devoted her life to the town’s neglected young sters. Giving up her status as the daughter of a college professor, the young Roman Catholic woman nursed the sick chil dren of Ants’ Town and taught the girls how to mend clothes. Once she organized an excur sion to the mountains for the youngsters, when she learned that they had never seen such rural sights. Miss Kitahara died last Jan uary at the age of 28 in a hut of the town where she had lived for years. At the requiem high mass, the ragpickers and their children paid a tearful last tri bute to the “Madonna of Ants’ 90 Panorama Town,” as they called her. About 10 per cent of the town’s residents, impressed by Miss Kitahara’s example, have become Catholics, including the leader, Mr. Ozawa. Mr. Ozawa hopes to see all the members converted to Catholicism Before the group has reached the to tal membership of 1,000 ex pected in 1963. In planning their expansion, the town leaders feel a new site is necessary since present location is part of a public park, with only makeshift build ings of broken boards and scrap metal. A group of engineering stu dents at Waseda University has designed, without charge, new buildings that the community hopes can be completed within five years. The Tokyo govern ment has granted the ragpicker group the right to buy about five acres- of waterfront land at a reasonable price. The blueprint of the new town shows apartments, a dining hall, a nursery and a bath house. Yards large enough for recreation, and space for 1,000 chickens and twenty pigs also are provided. On Fishing “Fishing is simplicity itself,” explains Hamilton Clay, Jr. “Al you have to do is get there yesterday when the fish where were biting.” One disciple of Izaak Walton picked the wrong day for sure. He was discovered by the father of a seven-year old boy, pole discarded, hopping on one foot, caressing the other and howling with anguish. “What happened?” demanded the father. “I guess it’s my fault,” said the seven year old. “This man told me he hadrit had a bite all morn ing — so I bit him.” October 1958 91

pages

89-91

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